'Bombs bursting in air'

The Connecticut House of Representatives' select committee on children is holding a public hearing next week on HB-7248, a bill "to prohibit music with violent lyrics from being brought into public schools."

It's worth noting that the national anthem is a song with violent lyrics, but lawmakers have cleverly sidestepped that with this definition:

"violent lyrics" means a sound recording that contains explicit sexual or violent material or detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of explicit sexual or violent material which, taken as a whole (A) predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors, (B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, as a whole, with respect to what is suitable material for minors, and (C) is utterly without redeeming social importance for minors.

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that our esteemed representatives mean well. But shouldn't parents, and not state legislators, be the ones determining what material is or is not "without redeeming social importance" for their children?

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Is there any discussion on enforcement? Are school security guards going to stop every student and scan their ipods, phones, etc for said shameful music? What's the punishment? Will the kids be fined like the kids swearing in Hartford schools?

Seems to me that, instead of babysitting the children of this country, the US should in fact babysit the parents who are doing nothing for their child's wellbeing.

PMRC in 1985, NWA in 1988, 2 Live Crew in 1990, etc. The battle over lyrics and content will just keep raging on, until we are prohibited by law not to listen to or watch anything with questionable content.

When are politicians going to start treating the disease instead of the symptoms?

Take, for instance, inner-city communities. Sure, there is a lot of violence and apathy, but do people really think it's caused by hip-hop music? Art is a reflection of prevailing social conditions, not the other way around.

A bill like this isn't surprising, though. It's easier to ban rap CDs than it is to do something crazy, like actually help people rise above the poverty and despair that hold them in place.

At last, we can get all of these terrible and violent songs out of our schools. But why stop at the national anthem, which (as you note) slips past the definitions they set forth. Let's consider "Ring around the Rosie", which has long been sung by children in our public schools. I recall learning (interestingly, in 6th grade in public school) that this song is believed to be about the black plague (c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_O'Roses). The ritual dance accompanying the song is thought to evoke the image of death, after making a sneezing-like sound (depends on country of usage) - "ashes, ashes". Certainly, a song about a collective, violent death has to fail their standards.

Even better, let's finally get rid of "Yankee Doodle". "Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy." Dirty. In the version taught to American schoolchildren, a "macaroni" is ". . . a dandyish young man with affected Continental mannerisms" (c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle). Is this the model we want our impressionable young men to follow? Do we really want them to think that by sticking a feather in their hat, they can achieve the height of fashion? Certainly that must violate community standards.

Hidden in every song, from the psalms to our national refrains, are mockery, violence, sex, or just a little something that offends somebody. Seems like it would be better to give kids the skills they need to ferret out the good from the bad, and thus become music critics. But I digress . . .

I don't agree with this legislation, but I think the atmosphere at public schools is very much the business of your state legislature, and should not be left to individual parents to decide. This is a Republic, not a ... what is it when everyone decides everything for themselves? Anarchy?

Is it up to individual parents to decide whether it is safe for school kids to bring hunting rifles to school?

Eric replies: Of course not, but the two are hardly equivalent. I think we can all agree that hunting rifles in school constitute an obvious danger. Deciding what music is "dangerous" is a tad more subjective. Do you want Joe Lieberman, or Sam Brownback, deciding what music is acceptable for your kids?